Autoblog

The future of Ford's Special Vehicle Team has been cloudy for the past few years. The hope that it would remain around in some form or another took a hit when its current chief, Hau Thai-Tang, was tapped to head Ford of Brazil earlier this year. Nevertheless, SVT indeed soldiers on and today we have proof that they're hard at work on a new project.

Winding Road managed to corner Jamal Hameedi, Chief Nameplate Engineer at SVT, at a Ford event in Detroit this morning. Hameedi revealed to WR that nearly all of SVT's resources are busy developing a new truck, and by "truck" he means a "body-on-frame" vehicle. Thus, whether it's a new F-150 Lightning or possibly a different F-Series model, an Explorer, Expedition or Ranger is unkown.

So, no Ford Taurus SHO developed by SVT or SVT Fusion. This kind of makes sense if one considers that the Lightning was supported throughout SVT's reign of terror in the '90s. Hameedi is reportedly extremely excited about the project, saying the finished product "...will blow your mind."

The performance truck world just got two shots of adrenalin in the form of the F-150 Foose Edition that will debut at the New York Auto Show next week and the Saleen S331 Sport Truck. If the new SVT truck will truly blow our minds, the bar is already set pretty high.

[Source: Winding Road]

The second vehicle Ford showed off yesterday was the F-150 FX2 Sport Extreme truck. Again, the theme is that anybody with a big enough wallet could build this truck using accessories and parts from Ford's performance and accessories catalogue. The truck's new name is justified thanks to a Ford Racing screw-type supercharger, ceramic-coated headers and Ford Racing side exhausts that helps the 5.4-liter V8 churn out 450 horsepower. Aww, brings back memories of SVT Lightnings liquefying their rear rubber at will. The FX2 Sport Extreme is also dressed up with more Ford appearance accessories like a dark billet grille, headlamp treatments, a fiberglass tonneau cover and what are described as "unique" wheels that look an awful lot like GT500 rims. Inside are technological treats like headrest-mounted screens and a line-in on top of the dash. Again, check out the Read link for a full gallery of pics provided by the Jalopalites.

[Source: Jalopnik]